Metal stereotypes (set on wooden blocks) of illustrations (many by Fr. Gerald McCann OFM Cap. with some by Grace Perry) of Franciscan life published in 'The Capuchin Annual'. The themes include Christmas festivities, pranks and mischiefs involving Capuchins (some of the friars depicted, including Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., were known to Fr. Gerald), sports, music, everyday chores and religious rituals. Several of the blocks depict more general aspects of religious devotion including representations of saints, the nativity, symbols and crests, missionaries and the clergy. Some of the blocks have annotations on the reverse indicating the theme of the illustration. These include: • ‘This place is holy’. • ‘Joy in the struggle’. • ‘St. Francis of Assisi / the builder’. • ‘People in love’. • ‘Building together’. • ‘Call to praise’. • ‘Peace and goodness’. • ‘St. Francis and the Wolf’. The cover illustration of 'The Capuchin Annual' by Seán O’Sullivan RHA. • Richard King at work on a Station of the Cross in his studio. Some of these stereotype blocks were found in box marked with an annotation suggesting that they had been returned from ‘Kelly’s Printers’.
Letter from Margaret ‘Maggie’ Moloney (1869-1959), to Fr. Philip King OFM Cap. (1885-1952). Margaret was celebrated as purportedly the world’s only known female harbour master when she assumed the position in Glin, County Limerick, following the death of her brother James in November 1918. She was also likely the longest-tenured harbour master in Ireland, only retiring from the role in 1952. The letter outlines how her brother worked for fifteen years as harbour master (including through the years of the Great War) and how he had to contend with petty local disputes to retain his role and secure an increase in wages.
An aerial view of Marina Quay and the River Lee in Cork. The steamship in the upper left-hand corner of the photograph is the ‘Innisfallen’, built in 1930 for the City of Cork Steam Packet Company. This ship was lost off Liverpool on 21 December 1940.
A view of the Clock House in Mallow, County Cork, in 1936. The photograph can be accurately dated due to the advertisement for the motion picture ‘Craig’s Life’ visible outside the Central Cinema to the left of the print. The film, starring Rosalind Russell and John Boles, was released in 1936. The Clock House was built around 1855, by Sir Charles Jephson-Norreys (1799-1888), a local MP and an amateur architect. His creation was said to be inspired by a trip he had undertaken to the Alps. The Clock was brought from the tower of the Old Mallow Castle. The bell was cast at Millerd Street in Cork. The bell tower became dangerous and was removed in about 1970, but was restored in 1995.
A flier for a performance of ‘Easter 1916’, a play by Montagu Slater, an English poet and playwright. The play covers the period from the 1913 lock-out to the1916 Rising by chronicling the life of James Connolly described as ‘Ireland’s first Socialist martyr’. A performance of Slater’s play was produced by the Left Theatre Company at the La Scala Theatre in Dublin in April 1936.
